Posted on 06/30/2016 6:32:42 PM PDT by Hojczyk
"When the truck made a left turn onto NE 140th Court in front of the car, the car’s roof struck the underside of the trailer as it passed under the trailer. The car continued to travel east on U.S. 27A until it left the roadway on the south shoulder and struck a fence. The car smashed through two fences and struck a power pole. The car rotated counter-clockwise while sliding to its final resting place about 100 feet south of the highway. Brown died at the scene.”"
So the car kept on driving without the driver controlling it? Although the article does not state it, I'm assuming the driver was killed when the windshield hit the trailer.
Will the Tesla be known as a hit & run car?
“So the car kept on driving without the driver controlling it? Although the article does not state it, I’m assuming the driver was killed when the windshield hit the trailer.”
It is known as Newton’s First Law of Motion. Objects in motion tend to remain in motion.
If the car was going fast, it will take a while for it to come to rest.
As was pointed out, the data is there and we will know how fast shortly.
“Blame is going to come down to how fast the Tesla was going...the truck driver can only see as far as line of sight will allow him.”
Here is the opening paragraph from Tesla:
“We learned yesterday evening that NHTSA is opening a preliminary evaluation into the performance of Autopilot during a recent fatal crash that occurred in a Model S. This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated. Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles. Worldwide, there is a fatality approximately every 60 million miles. It is important to emphasize that the NHTSA action is simply a preliminary evaluation to determine whether the system worked according to expectations.”
LOL @ me
I forgot about that Law of Motion and focused only on the autopilot aspect of the car.
This Tesla driver was not killed by a Tractor Trailer.
This Tesla driver was killed by his Tesla.
Any reasonably competent driver is going to be able to see a truck across the road and come to a safe stop.
The car's camera did not see the truck because of the lack of contrast, and the car's radar is programmed to ignore large flat objects across the road so it will not brake every time it goes under a highway sign.
The car made a mistake that a human driver would not make in a Million years.
You can say whatever you like about overall accident rates and reducing the number of fatalities across broad swaths of population, but this particular former Navy Seal would still be alive if he had been in control of his own car.
Or it just might not have had enough time to stop and avoid the truck making an illegal maneuver. Even automated cars must obey the laws of physics.
You’ve never seen people do that? Especially when the rig made an illegal left in front of them? Really?
Yup, cars can do that if enough of them gets clearance. Even your non-fancy cars. Got cruise control? You know what would happen if you had that set then something took the top off the car but left the bottom able to function? You’d keep going. Cars don’t have dead man switches.
Maybe America is different, but in Oz if the vehicle ahead is signalling a (right turn for us), the following vehicle is not supposed to overtake.
Yes, it is different here. Here the overtaking vehicle in the fast lane has the right of way.
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